ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES IN GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY

Progressive Individualism is the fundamental note of Gandhian life and thought. His idea of progression relies on individual freedom and its denial is contrary to the very nature of man. The individual is the end of development for which the State exists. In this, the authority of the State is only derivative and not sovereign. Gandhi was of the firm opinion that political democracy without economic democracy was meaningless and was akin to a ship without a rudder. He was aware of the widening gulf between the rich and the poor who were in the majority. He suggested that means of production and distribution should be controlled by the capitalist, but he should hold the wealth as thetrustee of the society. He was not at all opposed to modernisation, to which he believed was essential for self-sustaining, integrative growth of India’s nationalism.

Gandhi’s idealism based upon the moral and ethical interpretations of means and ends, trusteeship, satyagraha,non-violence, sarvodaya, concept of education, non-possession, power, prohibition, new socio-economic order, international peace and humanity as a whole have been subdued by the over-glorified materialism and distorted sense of perceptions and cognitions.

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The present socio-economic order reflects the cultural-lag of spiritualism that has been superseded by materialistic influences. The social maladjustment is exhibited in the forms of stressful life style, rising gap between aspirations and achievements, corruption, difference between thoughts, feelings and actions and global menace like terrorism to say the least.

Gandhiji especially emphasized upon purity of means. He made no distinction between means and end. To quote him: “Means and end are convertible terms in my philosophy of life. They say means are after all, means. I would say that means are after all everything. As the means, so the end. There is no wall of separation between means and end. Indeed the Creator has given no control (and that too very limited) over means, none over the end.” Again, “the means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree, and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as between the seed and tree.” The view of Gandhiji was that not only the end should be high and laudable; the means should also be moral.

However, this does not mean that Gandhiji did not attach any importance to the end. With regard to means, we must take our stand on a firm and solid ground and unadulterated good. Relating means to ends is the greatest contribution of Gandhiji to political theory. Alexander Horace writes: “ To the world as a whole, Gandhiji stands as the prophetic voice of his generation indeed of this century who consistently advocated non-violent action as the right means to using every injustice, for righting every wrong”. He did not approve the view that the end justifies the means.

The present degeneration of humanity and crisis of character is very much explainable by above Gandhian views. The root cause lies in the immorality of means adopted by people in general. Ends have become supreme whereas means have become secondary. Such a mindset rules over peoples’ thought process and have diluted the path of achieving the never-ending aspirations of people in every sphere of life. The moral and ethical boundaries have become permeable by impinging influences of success based upon unethical ways and means. The value orientations have taken a paradigm shift to give significant place to dishonesty, favouritism, nepotism and other forms of corruption. Social approval to such immoral deeds has gradually found its ground. A kind of cynical attitude about these activities bearing fruits of materialism is highly alarming.

The other phenomenal concept synonymous with Gandhiji is Satyagraha that literally means holding on to the truth and in a general sense means-a way of life followed by a person who holds steadfastly to God and dedicates his life to Him. It means resistance through non-violence. The prerequisites of Satyagraha according to Gandhiji include- truth, non-violence, fearlessness, non-possession, non-stealing, bread-labour, equality of religions and untouchability. Non-cooperation, fasting, civil disobedience and strike are the forms of Satyagraha. The present social order has completely different set of values that constitute- intolerance, dishonesty, corruption, violence and terrorism to say the least. Thus the scene is very much the anti-Gandhian in nature.

The term Sarvodaya was first used by Gandhi as the title for his Hindi version of Ruskin’s Unto the Last, which had exercised profound influence on him. It means “the rise of all”. This title is highly significant one. It remains the highest type of Socialism. It does not want the rise of the few; not even of the many, or for that matter, the rise of the greatest number. In the words of Vinoba- a disciple of Gandhi’s, on Sarvodaya- Its motto is far higher than ‘Live and let others live’; it is ‘Live for the sake of others’. It is the practical application of Vedanta philosophy. Sarvodaya according to Gandhi, means all round development of all people irrespective of class, creed, religion or caste. In present day world the development disparities are prominent to reflect the widening gulf between affluent class and the underprivileged poor class . The middle stratum of society is entangled in the paradoxical situations illustrated by traditions of the past and demands of today. Thus development scenario is not at all what Gandhi dreamt of.

He attached greater importance to duties than to rights. Rights are the opportunity for self-realisation. The way to self-realisation is the realisation of one’s spiritual unity with others by serving them and doing one’s duty by them. According to Gandhiji it is the spiritualised democracy that will minimize exploitation and replace the master-servant and other capitalist labour relationships by a new cooperative order based on egalitarian culture. Gandhi himself believed that the ideal society will always remain ‘an ideal unrealised’ , the unrealisable in its entirety. Referring to the stateless society, he said: “But the ideal is never fully realised in itself.” The ideal, non-violent society of Gandhian conception is unattainable due to human imperfection. But it still shows the direction of our destination and efforts to that direction must not cease.

Gandhian thought is somewhere lost in the midst of short-term pleasures of materialistic culture. The contributions of Gandhi as a leader, revolutionary and a great thinker are misinterpreted and misdirected by many who feel his ideology irrelevant and unjustified in the present world. They believe that ideals of Gandhi are near to impossible to be transformed into reality. But the fact of the matter remains, that Gandhian philosophy is unaffected and unharmed by superficial rationality based upon self-obsession and vested interests. One needs to be at peace in order to realise the core ideology of Gandhian perspective.

This highlights the paradoxical situations between the Gandhian idealism and the global realism that persists in almost every sphere of life in today’s India. It is an attempt to present the two contrasting paradigms of human life and at the same time testifies the validity of Gandhian principles in present scenario. It addresses the questions of the modern mundane world and application of Gandhian approach to find out their answers.